Some 1980's vintage Fords with fuel injection, had two pumps. A low-pressure in-tank pump supplied a high-pressure pump in the chassis rail.
By your year, a 2000 or 2001 E450, only a high pressure in-tank pump. These pumps do NOT allow fuel to flow through them when they aren't running. In other words, you can't connect an external pump in the middle of the tank-to-engine fuel line and have it draw fuel from a dead pump. If the pump IS bad, tank has to come down, unless there's some clever way to get at the top of the tank from the side or inside the coach.